Your letter of 4 April gave an account of the prices at which slopsellers would furnish the several species of clothes which we ordered be put on board their Majesties ships. You advised us that the bedding, not hitherto furnished by the slopseller, he was unwilling to supply this on the same terms as the clothes. You proposed that, since you cannot obtain bedding without ready money, that this should be left out of the establishment for clothes and that 1500 beds, blankets and pillows amounting to £750 should be provided distinctly for ships now going out. You are directed to buy these on the best rates to be had and put on board the respective ships and the seamen who desire them should have the cost deducted from their wages as they are paid. You are forthwith directed to solicit the Treasury for the money necessary for such bedding.